VETERAN JOURNALIST GABRIEL ESCOBAR NAMED TO JOINT APPOINTMENT AT DALLAS MORNING NEWS AND SMU MEADOWS SCHOOL OF THE ARTS

VETERAN JOURNALIST GABRIEL ESCOBAR NAMED TO JOINT APPOINTMENT AT DALLAS MORNING NEWS AND SMU MEADOWS SCHOOL OF THE ARTS

Gabriel Escobar

June 10, 2011

DALLAS — The Dallas Morning News and Southern Methodist University are pleased to announce the joint appointment of Gabriel Escobar, metropolitan editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer, former city editor and foreign correspondent at the Washington Post and former associate director of the Pew Hispanic Center.

Escobar will join the Editorial Board of The Dallas Morning News as an editorial writer effective July 25. He will help shape the editorial voice of the newspaper across a variety of issues and expand its leadership in Latino affairs.

“Gabe brings a wonderful combination of experience, insight and skill to any subject he encounters,” said Bob Mong, editor of The Dallas Morning News. “I firmly believe North Texas readers will find him to be a quick study and a refreshingly original presence.”

Escobar will report through Vice President and Editorial Page Editor Keven Ann Willey.

Escobar also will join the Division of Journalism in SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts, where he will teach, provide leadership in an area of news coverage to be determined by the division and assist in the development and ongoing publishing of an online Spanish-language news site that will be part of SMU's student media operations.

"We are excited to be partnering with The Dallas Morning News to bring a journalist of Gabe Escobar's caliber to SMU to teach in our journalism program," said José Bowen, dean of SMU's Meadows School. "He brings a wealth of real-world experience, particularly in Latin American reporting, and will be a tremendous asset to our school."

Escobar will report to Tony Pederson, the Belo Distinguished Chair in Journalism, who said: "We are pleased to partner with The Dallas Morning News in this innovative joint appointment. We are a professional program dedicated to training the journalists of the 21st century, and we believe Gabe will help create extraordinary learning opportunities for our students."

Escobar comes to Dallas from the Philadelphia Inquirer, where he has been metropolitan editor since 2007. Prior to that, Escobar was the associate director of the Pew Hispanic Center, a nationally recognized, non-partisan research center dedicated to the study of the Hispanic population in the United States. And before that, he was a South America correspondent for the Washington Post based in Argentina.

“I am thrilled to be joining two such distinguished institutions. The editorial board led by Keven Willey has become an authoritative voice in civic life. Its national reputation for innovative opinion writing and community engagement is well earned,” Escobar said. “SMU’s program, under the direction of Tony Pederson and Dean José Bowen, is embracing the challenge of training future journalists in a changing media world.”

While city editor for the Washington Post, Escobar supervised and edited coverage of lead contamination in Washington’s water supply, which received the 2005 Selden Ring award for investigative reporting. He also has worked for the Philadelphia Daily News,Hartford Courant and Hudson (NJ) Dispatch.

Escobar has a Master of Arts in journalism from the University of Maryland and Bachelor of Arts in creative writing from Queens College, City University of New York.

Fluent in Spanish, Escobar was born in Bogotá, Colombia and moved to the United States with his family at age 7. He and his wife and three school-age children expect to move to Dallas later this summer.